Walt disney was gay
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We simply danced to the sounds of some horrible disco band."
The two swiftly filed a lawsuit against Disney, claiming the ban on same-sex dancing violated the California Unruh Civil Rights Act.
They won the suit in 1984, marking the first time Disneyland had lost a legal battle in court, QNotes Carolinas said.
The company later relaxed its dancing policy, with Disney spokesperson Al Flores telling the Los Angeles Times in 1985 that the company sees "a lot of situations where two girls come together and want to dance and ask to.
Officially, the decision was made due to requests from patrons of Videopolis, a (now-shuttered) teen dance venue. That’s hyperbole, yes, but not by much. “Those kinds of things had to be pointed out and fought for.”
2000-2013: Continued Queer Coding in TV at Disney Channel
Not much of note was reported about the treatment of LGBTQ people by Disney during the first decade of the 21st century.
“Videopolis brings in a lot of teen-aged kids, and we see a lot of situations where two girls come together and want to dance and ask to.
Gay Days grew into one of the biggest events for Disney World, attracting over 100,000 attendees.
GayDays® Celebrates 35 Years of Fun, Family, and Friends.
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Dana Terrace, the creator of “The Owl House” and a bisexual woman, has been outspoken about having to fight to feature queer representation on the show. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? The most popular of these festivities is Gay Days, an Orlando-based gathering held annually in the first week of June.
Visitors participate in celebrations around the city, attend all the Disney sites, and partake in the festivities like Red Shirt Day at Disney World's Magic Kingdom park.
Gay Days date back to 1991 and often bring in over 150,000 visitors, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Gay Days CEO Joseph Clark told USA Today his first visit in 2008 still was "life-changing."
"It was just a whole group of people together, and there was no judgment going on.
Disney's LGBTQ history is complicated
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Dive into the action with two pools and DJs spinning the hottest tracks until 2 a.m., plus returning favorites like Drag Bingo, Porn Bingo, the Mr.
GayDays Leather Competition, the Miss GayDays Pageant, and the legendary Puppy Mosh. According to Disney Parks' official tweet, the event "will have themed entertainment, Disney characters, specialty menu items," and more.
The Walt Disney World park also plans to host a major conference for LGBTQ workplace rights in September 2023, Tampa Bay Times reported.
Disney employees have also pushed the company to make progress on its LGBTQ support.
In 1995, the Los Angeles Times reported on a new Disneyland Lesbian and Gay United Employees group, or LEAGUE, that planned to organize around LGBTQ issues, host guest speakers, and plan Disney-related projects.
Steven Valkenburg, LEAGUE co-chair, told the LA Times the group wanted to work in tandem with Disney.
"We're not trying to overthrow the company," he said.
In the minds of most fans, that’s a very definite “yes.” The character doesn’t have any love interests in the original 2013 film or its 2019 sequel, but does have a storyline around accepting herself and the secret she hides from conventional society. A 2014 episode of Disney Channel’s “Good Luck Charlie” drew protests from hate groups after it featured a lesbian couple as minor characters.
Those early works often followed the plight and success of the "common man," appealing to Great Depression-era audiences, Smithsonian Magazine reported.
By World War II, Disney became a pillar of America's war propaganda efforts, according to The National WWII Museum of New Orleans. Characters became household names and representations of American values, with The New York Times calling Donald Duck "ambassador-at-large, a salesman of the American Way" in 1943.
When the Disneyland park opened in 1955, Walt Disney described it in a speech as a site "dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America."
Disney theme parks and media were seen as family-friendly entertainment.
The theme parks — alongside Disney's ever-growing list of film, television, and other entertainment — were widely seen as family-friendly and conservative, Smithsonian Magazine reported.
Coding and hints as the only form of representation was essentially the norm for Disney characters (and characters in all media for kids, in fairness) during the 2000s. But that was just the beginning of similar press rounds about so-called “boundary-breaking” representation from the company.
As Disney has effectively burned bridges with conservatives via the Disney World lawsuit, there’s a possibility that the company will be a bit more willing to feature non-straight characters openly; if Disney has already alienated anti-LGBTQ audiences and sponsors, it can’t make any money by appeasing them.
In 2017, an episode of Disney Junior’s “Doc McStuffins” introduced another pair of lesbian mothers, marking a first for the pre-school channel. Although Disney was one of the last companies to introduce this policy, the LA Times reported, it was a major step forward for equality.
Disney employees also spoke out against former Disney CEO Bob Chapek's botched response to Florida GOP's so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill.
Employees recently made headlines for their March 2022 walkout after former Disney CEO Bob Chapek's botched response to Florida's controversial Parental Rights law, which limits instructions about gender identity and sexual orientation in some classrooms, dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" law by Democrats and LGBTQ rights groups.
At first, Chapek did not outright condemn the bill, leading to employee outrage, according to NBC News.
News about Disney's donations to Florida Republican politicians also sparked controversy, Politico reported.
"The recent statements and lack of action by TWDC [The Walt Disney Co.] leadership regarding the 'Don't Say Gay or Trans' bill have utterly failed to match the magnitude of the threat to LGBTQIA+ safety represented by this legislation," the employees said on a now-defunct website whereischapek.com, according to NBC News.
The walkout resulted in a direct apology from Chapek to employees.
"It is clear that this is not just an issue about a bill in Florida, but instead yet another challenge to basic human rights," he said in a letter.
But that’s not because Disney was actively supporting employees or fans.
Gay creators continued to be prominent at all levels of the company; for example, Kenny Ortega, who directed movies like “Newsies” and “Hocus Pocus” during the ’90s, delivered Disney Channel its defining hit with the camp classic “High School Musical” trilogy.
On top of riding rollercoasters and eating funnel cake, couples could also dance together to a live band.
According to South Florida Gay News, Disney's ongoing policy was that "couples only are allowed on the dance floor [male/female]."
The policy still stood by the 1980s, and according to QNotes Carolinas, prompted Orange County local Andrew Exler into action.